ECLIPSE project to develop a reference framework for energy applications

The Digital Europe-supported ECLIPSE project has launched to facilitate energy consumption reduction across the European Union.

The project ECLIPSE (Energy Consumption reduction based on Open-source Reference framework), launched on 1 September, is proposed to implement and demonstrate a common European reference framework for energy consumer applications across the EU.

With this, energy efficiency and sustainable practices should be encouraged among consumers.

Digital technology solutions for energy monitoring have enormous potential to increase energy efficiency and load shifting, avoiding imbalances in the network and power outages.

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Today, there are several end-user applications and platforms that provide greater control of energy use and it is within this context that the ECLIPSE project enters with a common reference framework for consumer applications that allow voluntary reductions in energy consumption and load shifting, based on recommendations, strategies and incentives.

Specifically, the ECLIPSE project is intended to lay the foundation for the development of new innovative energy applications on an open source basis that provide consumers with simple, useful and easy-to-use information on energy savings and other benefits, such as CO2 reduction and other economic and social incentives.

In this way, it seeks to promote sustainable energy consumption behaviour and empower end consumers with informed energy decision making, while strengthening the stability and resilience of the European electricity networks.

Among the deliverables planned are guidelines for creating new energy consumer applications and improving existing ones.

The ECLIPSE project with a total budget of €9.8 million (US$10.7 million), of which €4.9 million is being provided by Digital Europe, runs over 24 months.

It is being developed by a consortium of 23 partners from 13 European countries, under the coordination of Lola Alacreu, Senior Project Manager at ETRA I&D, the R&D arm of the Spanish technology group ETRA.

Solutions developed in the project are planned to be demonstrated in 16 EU countries, in order to ensure interoperability with third-party systems while respecting the regulatory frameworks.

The development of a common reference framework for energy consumption applications was put forward in the EU’s energy system digitalisation action plan.

In a response, a landscape analysis of different groups of energy platforms by ETRA I&D identified energy monitoring as a key solution with the potential to save energy and reduce energy billing.